Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for the safety of patients of the variety in packaging of the same medicines; and if he will make a statement.

The Government has produced guidance in conjunction with experts in clinical practice and in the field of design for those who produce medicines packaging which recommends the judicious use of colour to ensure medicines are well differentiated to reduce the likelihood of error. In developing the principles within this guidance, the views of healthcare professionals and patients have been considered.

While there are detailed legal requirements with respect to the content of the information provided on the packaging there are no provisions with respect to colour and design of the packaging when presented to the market place.

Published research points to the similarity of packaging contributing adversely to selection errors in the pharmacy and other clinical settings. In addition, we are also mindful of the views expressed by patients whereby differences in appearance of medicines from different suppliers can be confusing. Where specific safety issues have been identified, for example with medicines containing warfarin, particular colours both for the tablets and the packaging have been adopted as an industry standard.